Foodbank clients receive healthy ingredient bags from Haywards Heath group

The IMPACT Tasty Team, which focuses on teaching people how to cook from scratch, use leftovers and reduce food waste, is adding ingredients for a recipe of the week in parcels going out as part of a new emergency food hub.

The hub, set up by Haywards Heath Town Council as part of various measures to help vulnerable individuals and families isolating, is adding to the work that existing food banks do in supporting struggling families during the pandemic.

Amie Cheverst, a volunteer who helped found the Haywards Heath Emergency Food Hub, said: “We are delighted that the people in the villages and rural areas around Mid Sussex are so keen to fill the collection boxes, and that the charity IMPACT are donating extra funds on top to make these emergency deliveries so healthy.”

IMPACT Tasty Team volunteers Emma Barker and Lucinda Meagher were helping to pack up the food boxes when the idea to add specific ingredients for a good, healthy meal struck them as a way to add value to the parcels.

This meant including some fresh ingredients such as vegetables, potatoes, fruit, eggs and cheese, which would then go out weekly with the emergency deliveries.

Emma said: “A different, simple, recipe card included in each Foodbank box delivered weekly would mean that a stir fry could be made one week, and, say, omelettes and pancakes the following week.”

IMPACT, with the help of volunteers, and friends such as Fiona Rocks in Ardingly, as well as local businesses have sourced and funded the extra ingredients to boost the foodbank boxes.

In addition, five new food collection points have been set up at Plawhatch Farm and Costcutter’s in Sharpthorne, Fellow’s Bakery and the Post Office in Ardingly, and The Green Man pub in Horsted Keynes.

Lisa Waller, who works for IMPACT, said: “We have been supporting vulnerable people in our local community to cook healthy meals on a budget for 16 years, so funding the additional ingredients and including a recipe card to provide everything needed to create a quick delicious and nutritious meals for the family seemed a great initiative.

“We are proud that the work our committed volunteers are doing, at such a critical time, is supporting the ever-increasing number of people using local foodbanks.”

People in need of emergency food can call the hotline for Covid-19 Mutual aid, 01444 635002, although most referrals come from front-line agencies, doctor’s surgeries or the council.